QUARTERLY MEETNG HELD AT MORECAMBE ON SATURDAY 5^th July 2003.

Present.:- Bev Weisenburger, Mike Glover, John Barter, Carol Barter, Chris Aldersley,

Cath Dennison, Sam Dennison, Robin Liptrot, Richard Beck, Geoff Rens, Phil Aldersley,

Rachel Jennings, Paul Wild, Julie Wild, Pete Singleton, Chris Aldersley, Chris Lansdowne,

Sophie Lansdowne, Barbara Glover, Jackie Batty.

Apologies :- Mal Holmes, Jim Missen, Anthony Ashworth, Ged Marcus, Julie Heaton,

Greg Jennings, Jenny Lloyd, Pat Clift, Dave Weisenburger.

• Zara Glover not being available for county due to Team England duties does not prevent her being available for finals if county team successful in getting through.

• No further progress with Centre Reps contacting bowl managers re linking events with current promotions for sponsorship.
• Rachel Jennings still looking into Awards night for next year which may include a Race night.
• Why can BTBA not sanction the person instead of league. MH to discuss at next meeting.

• Bowlers role of honour included on website. B Wig still to look into this.

• MG and CB confirmed that the first round had taken place at Sheffield Firth Park. The ladies were running in second place whilst the men in sixth had a lot to do as only the top two qualify for the final round to be held in Croydon.

• The next round was being hosted by Lancashire at Accrington on the 27^th July 2003. Any support would be very welcome.

• PA ran through the arrangements regarding the regions and the venues. He stated that he had taken Lancashire’s position up with adult tournament inter county manager who said he was unable to change anything as it had been a BTBA decision. The meeting unanimously requested that the county secretary write a letter to the BTBA outlining the counties utter amazement at having to go to Bedford which is just in our region to bowl in this competition. The meeting felt that this was imposing unacceptable costs and journey times on northern counties. What was the point in having regions? MG confirmed that he would write and also bring it up at the County Secretaries convention which he was attending shortly.
• PA/CA confirmed that squad members would be receiving emails/letters very shortly which would assist in the final selection of the teams.

• PW and RJ stated they were still trying to set up a YAC league across the county. All YBC officials at the meeting confirmed that they had a number of ex junior bowlers from their respective clubs who were now or nearly 18 years old but were at a risk of giving up competitive bowling after years of bowling on a Saturday morning in their YBC’s.
• The YBC officials present all agreed to assist Paul and Rachel in running this in conjunction with their YBCs.
• Paul and Rachel to finalise the details. It was agreed to start this league on Saturday 6^th September. 2003. Details would shortly be available through YBC secretaries or from Paul and Rachel.

• BG reported that three practices had already been held with another one due tomorrow at Accrington.

• The next tournament involving under 18’s and under 16’s only was the eight counties competition at Lincoln on the 3^rd August.2003.

• The Yorkshire versus Lancashire Tournament was going to take place on the 10^th August at Sheffield Firth Park
• BG raised the matter of a very poor attendance at a recent under 18 practice session. The point was made that the u18’s inter county tournament matches had now ended and perhaps this was why so few attended. MG said that he realised this and that these sessions were not compulsory but the least that 22 individuals who did not turn up could have done was to let the organisers know. It resulted in 3 instructors travelling in some cases over 100 mile round trips to coach 2 juniors.
• The possibility of opening up these training sessions to others beside just squad members was discussed but no decision was reached.
• PS informed the meeting that the YBC from White City had now moved to Parrs Wood Manchester. They had encountered a slight problem in that the lanes had not been sanctioned which formally meant that the YBC was not using sanctioned lanes. The bowl management was urgently sorting this out. MG confirmed that he would raise this with Derek Brooker at the forthcoming county secretaries’ convention.

Grand Prix Doubles.

• BW reported that the interest from Lancashire at the moment was not good. Entries were being received from Yorkshire and possibly because of the large prize money from as far away as southern England.

• It was being held on the two weekends of 10^th and 17 August 2003 at Morecambe using possibly the Saturdays for the more local bowlers.

• It was hoped to get this tournament given merit status for Team England selection next year.

Roses Tour 2003.

• PA told the meeting that he attended the recent one at Shipley and it proved to be an absolutely excellent event with excellent bowling, three scores of 275, high competitiveness, good lanes and good banter with prize money being paid out well down the list. He would recommend it to anybody who wants good competition.

• The next one is to be held at Morecambe on the 13^th July with two further ones later in the year at Preston.

Mixed Doubles.

• MG confirmed that Ged Marcus was definitely going to run this event at Premier Bowl Blackpool purely for Lancashire BTBA members. Date had yet to be confirmed but possibly Oct/Nov dependent on decisions about the trials.

Scott Banks Tournament

• MG reported that Rita Wood of Yorkshire had been trying to set a date for this event towards the end of the year. It was Yorkshire’s turn to host this competition and she was urgently trying to fit it into a very congested bowling calendar. The meeting agreed to await the deliberations of the Trials committee.

• Fund raising was still urgently required. MG pointed out that Yorkshire had a dedicated Fund Raising manager/co ordinator but nobody in Lancashire had volunteered for this position. Centre reps for Morecambe and Blackpool had always agreed to Fund Raise at their centres.

• MG pointed out that the Senior inter county event was coming to Accrington on the 27th July and we had no fund raising proposals or arrangements in place. This was an opportunity that should not be missed as the County needed the money.

• MG suggested that innovative ways of raising money should be sought like the Supermarket bag pack which was very successful.

• PA said he would put a request on the web site for a volunteer for this role.
• Sponsorship was still a possibility. PS suggested that Lancs BTBA contact Lancashire County Sport Development Unit to see if there were any possibilities from them. MG agreed to follow this idea up.

• MG pointed out that the six members of the trials committee, after this meeting, had to go away and decide format venues costs etc. This was a difficult and thankless task because whatever they decided there would be a number of dissatisfied people. These people must even if unhappy then get behind the county and support the decision because he was sure the committee would make what they thought were the best decisions for the county.

• PA confirmed that he had read through all the 1000 plus messages on the web site and extracted all ideas that had been proposed for the trials. The actual number filled about half a page only numbering about fifteen. Some of these had to be discarded because they had not taken into consideration that anybody representing their county under the BTBA rules had to have taken part in their county trials.

• Other issues raised and discussed were :-

• At the end of these discussions it was decided that the group would meet at Rachel Jennings house which was central to all on Thursday evening the 10^th July 2003 to finalise.

• MG pointed out that people were still not replying or responding to messages emails and texts. In an organisation like this if you do not reply you are causing another volunteer more difficulty and possibly preventing them from doing their bit. It is only good manners to respond to a communication as quickly as possible. The prime example was as mentioned earlier with the u18 training sessions.

• RJ on behalf of Greg Jennings stated that the written feed back to him from Lancs members/officials was poor. He had made contact with the newspapers but unless he had something for them there was nothing more he could do.

• PA said, from experience, if you bombard these reporters with lots of information on a regular basis then you would get somewhere. Odd bits now and then will almost certainly be unsuccessful.

• BG pointed out from her experience that if you had a winner of something then the papers were interested.

• Jackie B stated that this had not been her understanding of Greg’s role but from now on would try to provide some information. Others had also not realised that this was what Greg wanted.

• A discussion took place about getting celebrities to do demos as Preston did some years ago with two American professionals

• The Chairman who sent his apologies requested that MG outline the following. The new National Council had been selected and held their first meeting. Bernie Caterer and Lol Ellis had replaced Pat Harries and Denis Fletcher.

• The National Council meeting had decided due to financial circumstances that the annual membership for next year would be raised from £12 to £15 per annum, the juniors being 50%

• "The Way Forward" process that was proposed earlier in the year was on hold at the moment because of the changing situation within Sport England with a new Chief Executive and major changes of staff.

• The treasurer had sent his apologies. In his absence he had provided a financial statement which MG read out. This report was available for anybody at the meeting to view.

• Individuals’ coming on the website anonymously was discussed but the meeting agreed it was better to do this and get a sensible response for others to read than not come on at all. Generally the meeting thought the website was working well.
• MG asked if anybody knew if Carl Dulson had had his name engraved on the sword. RL would see him and find out.
• MG agreed to find out if the Scott Banks plate was on display at Accrington

Proposed for 7.00pm Saturday 11^th October 2003 at the new bowl on the sea front at Southport.

(Post meeting note Southport have confirmed that this is OK)